1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a product and method for specifying the compatibility of an affixed sheet with the product, and more particularly to a product and method for specifying the compatibility of an affixed sheet with the product in order to eliminate a step of removing the affixed sheet during a recycling process.
2. Discussion of the Background
In electronic equipment, such as a copying, facsimile or printing apparatus, for example, various kinds of informational plates are mounted, including plastic seals adhered on various parts of the equipment. One example of such a plastic seal is the notification sheet 30 illustrated in FIG. 6, which respectively indicates sales office information 30a and service office information 30b by which a user can order consumable items and repair services, for example.
Recently, when electronic equipment is scrapped, its plastic elements made of various resins including PS (polystyrene) resin, ABS (acrylonitrile butadiene styrene) resin, PPE (polyphenylene ether) and so forth are put through a material recycling process so that the plastic elements can be reused in different forms, for environmental reasons. Such plastic elements often have the above-mentioned seals thereon. When a plastic seal is adhered on a plastic element but they are not chemical compatible with each other, the two products must be processed separately in the recycling process in order to avoid the recycled plastics having different characteristics from the original plastics. Therefore, during the material recycling process, the plastic seals need to be removed from the plastic elements to which they are adhered.
In order to improve this material recycling process, a plastic seal that is compatible with the molded-plastic products has been developed. For example, Dainippon Ink and Chemicals, Inc. has developed a Dai-Hart that is compatible with the above-mentioned resins and is therefore popularly used for plastic seals.
Manufacturers of electronic equipment may draw the attention of those in the equipment scrapping and/or material recycling industry (recycling concerned workers) by indicating that the two plastic products, i.e., a plastic seal made of Dai-Hart and the molded-plastic product, are chemically compatible with each other. This may be done via the material compatibility information 30c of the plastic seal 30 of FIG. 6, which includes an exemplary phrase such as: "THIS SEAL HAS A COMPATIBILITY WITH THE BASE ELEMENT AND CAN BE RECYCLED TOGETHER WITHOUT BEING REMOVED FROM THE BASE ELEMENT," and an exemplary symbol "PS" representing polystyrene resin. Relying on such information, which is referred to as a "compatibility related note for recycling," recycling concerned workers will put the base element through the material recycling process together with the seal affixed thereon. In this way, the step of removing the seal from the base element can be eliminated and the scrapping and/or the material recycling process can be improved in its efficiency.
However the compatibility related note for recycling may not fit a small seal 30. Also, when a seal also includes notes related to operations, such as in the case of a control console for example, the note for recycling, which is unrelated to functional operations, may lead to an incorrect operation of the equipment. In addition, the note for recycling on the seal of a control console may be undesirable from an external design viewpoint.